Carrying a bag of fruit weighing sixty or seventy jin, an ordinary person would soon feel their hands go numb and arms ache. But when Li Zhi carried it, it felt as light as a cup of water.
Even while climbing the mountain, he showed no sign of effort.
When he reached the terrace, his backpack was still sitting there obediently. It had not been carried off by any wild beasts in the mountains.
It seemed that this terrace was a forbidden zone for wild beasts.
He quickly took a brand-new set of quick-dry clothes from his bag and put them on, finally escaping his streaker-like state.
Then he placed the Luoyang Shovel into his backpack and carried the Hundred Herbs Diagram and the Cultivation Method scrolls close to his body.
He also took out some useless things and threw them away.
But when he was about to throw away a roll of rubbing paper, he suddenly put it back into his bag.
The reason he had packed rubbing paper was to make copies of inscriptions, stone carvings, and other things that could not be taken away.
The spare phone in his bag had long since run out of power. The spare battery had also gone dead from sitting unused for too long.
As for the phone he carried with him, it had perished together with the insects in the Medicine Field back when he entered the Hundred Herbs Diagram to climb the mountain.
After tidying up his backpack and luggage, Li Zhi put the bag of fruit into the backpack.
After all, carrying it on his back was more convenient than holding it in his hand.
The hiking backpack was spacious enough. After he removed the useless items, nearly half of it was empty.
Then Li Zhi sat cross-legged on the terrace and waited for nightfall.
He could no longer clearly remember how long he had been in this Secret Realm.
But he knew that it had definitely been a long time.
Sitting on the terrace, he began to miss little Ji Zu and little Xian'er at home. He wondered whether they had started running around yet, and whether they could clearly call him "Daddy" by now.
The entrance was too close to Jade Emperor Peak, so Li Zhi did not want to leave during the day.
He intended to use the cover of darkness to leave this Great Sage Mystic Realm.
After all, appearing out of thin air near Jade Emperor Peak in broad daylight would likely cause unnecessary trouble.
There had never been any shortage of tourists on the Mount Tai outside.
After sitting there and missing his wife and children for a while, he ate several pieces of fruit to fill his stomach, then began cultivating the Breathing Method.
He wanted to adjust himself to his best condition and give his family a tremendous surprise.
But he did not know that the surprise was destined to be impossible.
At that very moment, in an orbit outside Earth, Nine Divine Dragons, each a hundred meters long, had been silently floating there for several days, pulling a Bronze Giant Coffin more than twenty meters long.
The Nine Divine Dragons looked as though they had emerged from mythology. Their forms were almost identical to the dragons recorded in myths: deer antlers, a horse's head, fish whiskers, a snake's body, tiger teeth, and eagle claws.
The Nine Divine Dragons seemed to possess no life force at all. Their entire bodies gleamed with a metallic luster, covered in black scales the size of cattail fans. They looked as though they had been cast from Mysterious Iron, giving off an impression of fierce strength and magnificent grandeur.
Countless mysterious patterns were engraved on the Bronze Giant Coffin. They seemed to depict living beings from the ancient primordial era, when Heaven and Earth had first emerged.
The Nine Dragons Coffin Transport floated silently in Earth's orbit while continuously radiating mysterious fluctuations. After being detected by various space agencies on Earth, the signals' meaning remained impossible to decipher.
In this silent, dark space, nine enormous Dragon Corpses lay stretched out, while the Bronze Giant Coffin appeared simple yet majestic, as though it had coexisted with the primordial universe for countless ages.
At the same time,
At the foot of Mount Tai, after the morning sunlight had spread across the land, Ye Fan and the others finally left the hotel where they had stayed the previous night.
Green pines and verdant cypresses, ancient trees that soared into the sky, flying waterfalls, and murmuring springs adorned the majestic and imposing Mount Tai with extraordinary beauty.
Thin mist curled through the air, while rosy clouds filled the heavens, adding a touch of mystery and the unknown to Mount Tai in the early morning.
They climbed steadily upward, passing countless scenic spots and ancient ruins along the way, as well as cliffside inscriptions that inspired endless admiration.
Whenever they reached the vicinity of an ancient ruin or inscription, Ye Fan would temporarily leave the group and chat briefly with the vendors or staff setting up stalls there.
This made Lin Jia, who followed beside him the entire way, rather curious.
By dusk, Ye Fan and the others finally reached the summit of Mount Tai.
Standing atop Jade Emperor Peak and looking down over the land, quite a few people sighed like Confucius, "After climbing Mount Tai, all beneath Heaven seems small."
Only Lin Jia moved close to Ye Fan and said, "Ye Fan, you're acting really strange today."
Lin Jia was an intelligent and beautiful girl. Although she was somewhat snobbish, she was not bad by nature, and she was good at observing people.
Along the way, she had noticed that Ye Fan showed no interest whatsoever in his ex-girlfriend Li Xiaoman, who was chatting enthusiastically with her foreign friends.
He had not even bothered to trade barbs with his archenemies Liu Yunzhi and the others.
He had also been very low-key among his classmates. He showed none of the smooth, sociable manner of Wang Ziwen, Zhou Yi, and the others.
This was completely different from the Ye Fan she knew.
Ye Fan turned around and smiled at Lin Jia. "Lin Jia, being curious about a man isn't a good sign."
Lin Jia smiled as well. "Li Xiaoman rarely comes back for a visit, yet you haven't tried to show off at all. This isn't the Ye Fan I know."
Ye Fan said, "Li Xiaoman and I ended things long ago. Why should I disturb her life now?"
Lin Jia asked curiously, "Then can you tell me what you've been asking about all along? You even fell behind several times."
Ye Fan did not want to say more. As for Li Zhi, he still felt it would be better not to let Lin Jia know.
After coming to Mount Tai at Zhou Mei's request, Ye Fan had carefully observed the mountain's unusual aspects, and it had given him a very strange feeling.
It seemed that the mystery which had troubled him for many years might be unraveled here.
The setting sun bathed Jade Emperor Peak, while the marvelous sea of clouds stretched out before them.
With such a beautiful sight before him, it would truly have been unreasonable not to lose himself in it.
Ye Fan directly changed the subject. "Beauty Lin, quite a few of our classmates have already started families. Don't you have any thoughts about that? With your standards, you should at least find a boyfriend stronger than me."
Lin Jia giggled. "I never expected you to be so petty."
At that moment, several black dots suddenly appeared in the distant sky. The dots gradually grew larger, and even the sea of clouds in the distance began to churn. The faint sound of wind and thunder came from the horizon.
In an instant, nine enormous creatures descended from the sky like nine thick mountain ranges.
Their immense momentum carried boundless pressure, freezing the expressions of everyone on Mount Tai and filling their faces with terror.
In moments, everyone clearly saw nine enormous Dragon Corpses pulling a Bronze Coffin as they pressed down toward Jade Emperor Peak.
The mountaintop instantly descended into chaos. Tourists surged in all directions, searching for safe places to hide.
"Boom!"
The Nine Divine Dragons, which resembled mountain ranges, crashed heavily onto Jade Emperor Peak, smashing the mountaintop open with crack after crack. Faint radiance seeped from within the fissures.
On Jade Emperor Peak, earth and stones flew through the air and dust filled the sky. Cries of terror rose one after another, while screams shook the heavens. Hardly anyone noticed the light within the cracks.
At the same time, Li Zhi, who was inside the Great Sage Mystic Realm, also felt the mountain shake and the earth tremble.
He immediately thought of one possibility, tore open the Barrier, and appeared outside.
From a distance, Jade Emperor Peak was in complete chaos. Tourists were rushing desperately down the mountain.
Seeing this, Li Zhi went against the flow. He immediately slung his luggage onto his back and ran toward the mountaintop.
On the way up, he also snatched a phone from a panicked tourist.
Then, while running, he called Zhou Mei.
After three beeps, Zhou Mei answered.
"Hello?"
"Mei'er, I'm fine. Nothing happened to me. I'm on Jade Emperor Peak at Mount Tai. Everything I wanted to tell you is locked in the safe in the study at our old home. Raise the children well and wait for me to come back."
"Husband, is that you? Where did you go?" Zhou Mei burst into tears of joy on the other end of the phone.
But Li Zhi's call had already been cut off.
He had reached Jade Emperor Peak, where something seemed to be interfering with the phone signal.
When the smoke and dust at the mountaintop dispersed, Li Zhi saw that only Ye Fan's group remained near the Bronze Coffin.
Moreover, they were calmly examining the Bronze Coffin and the enormous cracks in the ground.
They even had the leisure to chat.
While Ye Fan and the others circled around the Bronze Coffin, Li Zhi finally reached the edge of the fissure.
Looking at the Five-Colored Altar beneath the coffin and the Bronze Giant Coffin above it, excitement appeared on his face.
Just as he was examining the Five-Colored Altar, Ye Fan and Zhou Yi, standing on the other side of the Bronze Giant Coffin, spoke at the same time. "We should leave this place quickly."
At that moment, a woman standing near the fissure seemed to be startled. Her foot slipped, and she fell straight into the crack.
Then, as though it had triggered a chain reaction,
A mysterious force bound every one of them, and they all fell into the Giant Pit beneath the fissure.
At that moment, Ye Fan finally saw Li Zhi on the opposite side and asked in surprise, "Brother Li, what are you doing here?"
Li Zhi smiled instead. "I was trapped in a Secret Realm. I just came out and happened to run into this big fellow."
What Ye Fan saw in Li Zhi's eyes was not panic or fear, but overflowing excitement, as though he had encountered an earth-shattering opportunity.
Just as Ye Fan was about to ask what had happened, the Bronze Coffin suddenly began to shake.
Before you continue